Revolution Today
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The American Revolution
. . . and Its Radical Legacies.
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Thomas Jefferson’s Fears
Behold you then, my dear friend, at the head of a great army, establishing the liberties of
your country against a foreign enemy. may heaven favor your cause, and make you the
channel thro’ which it may pour it’s [sic] favors. while you are exterminating the
monster aristocracy, & pulling out the teeth & fangs of it’s associate monarchy, a
contrary tendency is discovered in some here. a sect has shewn itself among us, who
declare they espoused our new constitution, not as a good & sufficient thing itself, but
only as a step to an English constitution, the only thing good & sufficient in itself, in
their eye. . . . what are you doing for your colonies? they will be lost if not more
effectually succoured. indeed no future efforts you can make will ever be able to reduce
the blacks. all that can be done in my opinion will be to compound with them as has
been done formerly in Jamaica. we have been less zealous in aiding them, lest your
government should feel any jealousy on our account. but in truth we as sincerely wish
their restoration, and their connection with you, as you do yourselves.
--Jefferson to the Marquis de Lafayette
16 June 1792
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Of Fear and Reality
The situation of the St. Domingo fugitives (aristocrats as they are) calls aloud for
pity and charity. Never was so deep a tragedy presented to the feelings of
man...I become daily more and more convinced that all the West India Island
will remain in the hands of the people of colour, and a total expulsion of the
whites sooner or later take place. It is high time we should foresee the bloody
scenes which our children certainly, and possibly ourselves (south of the
Potomac), have to wade through and try to avert them.
--Jefferson to James Monroe
14 July 1793
4
Women’s Rights Convention
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man
to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have
hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a
decent respect to the opinions of mankind require that they should declare the causes that
impel them to such a course.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed. . . . Such has been the patient sufferance
of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them
to demand the equal station to which they are entitled.
The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man
toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. . .
--Seneca Fall, New York, 1848
5
The Strange Career of American
Revolution
Do you realize that the Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence
in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation. And incidentally,
this was before the Communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi
Minh. And this is a little-known fact, and these people declared themselves
independent in 1945. They quoted our Declaration of Independence in their
document of freedom, and yet our government refused to recognize them.
President Truman said they were not ready for independence. So we fell
victim as a nation at that time of the same deadly arrogance that has
poisoned the international situation for all of these years.
--Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Why I am Opposed to the War in Vietnam”
Riverside Church, NYC, 30 April, 1967
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Allegories of Liberty
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Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1785
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Jacques-Louis David, Intervention of the Sabine Women, 1799
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A-J Gros, Allegory of the Republic,
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Nanine Vallain, Liberté, 1792
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Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830
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Delacroix, Liberty Leading
the People, 1830
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Delacroix, Greece on the
Ruins of Missolonghi, 1826
15
Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi,
Statue of Liberty,
Unveiled in New York
Harbor, 1886
Photo courtesy of andos_pics on Flickr. CC-BY-NC-SA.
16
Goddess of Democracy, Tienanmien Square, 1989
Photos courtesy of Robert Corma and Matthew Black on Flickr. CC-BY-NC-SA.
Goddess of Democracy,
University of British Columbia, 1991
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This image is public domain.
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MIT OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu
21H.001 How to Stage a Revolution
Fall 2013
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